


Lightning before Thunder

by Littlelionman15



Series: Thunder [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Agents of SHIELD Pre-Season 5 Space Speculation, Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Other, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Iron Man 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 18:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14385045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlelionman15/pseuds/Littlelionman15
Summary: Fox Cooper has been abducted by Hydra. After his rescue by the rogue Steve Rogers, Fox has been brought to SHIELD HQ. The director, Daisy Johnson, finds out crucial and game-changing information. The lost son and father, Fox and Tony, start over.





	Lightning before Thunder

**Author's Note:**

> The events of this chapter lead up to an event I've had in my mind for a while now, so stay tuned. ;)

„Look at me.“ the silent voice says.  A foggy silhouette leaned over him. Soon, Fox could feel the warm breath of the person above him. “Fox” they said again, “we’re going home.”  
He wanted to open his eyes wider and see who’s above him, he really did – but his eyelids were too tired, and not even a moment later, they shut. The last thing he felt were two gentle arms, slowly and carefully sliding underneath his back and then raising, picking him up and his tired head leaning on what he thinks is a shoulder. There was a familiar scent – not a perfume; something gentler, more comforting. Then it hit him: it was Steve’s cologne. _Steve had picked him up and now is carrying him home!_ At the thought of that, Fox’s muscles relaxed, and with his last bit of energy fading, he fell asleep.

 

„Where is he?!“  
Daisy Johnson was tearing her way through the groups of people which stood in the hallway. Her heart was racing and she could feel every heartbeat in the tips of her fingers. „Fox!“ she screamed at the top of her lungs, still propping herself up and dodging the masses until she finally reached the medical wing of the base. There, in front of the impenetrable glass that was separating the rest of the base of the exam room of the medical wing, her eyes glanced upon a nervous figure, walking back and forth while visibly shaking and upset. _Tony_ , she whispered. It was Fox's father – the rather infamous, here at Shield, Tony Stark. For a second, rage fulfilled her – it's the man who doomed her organization, the closest thing she has to a family, on a future in the shadows, hiding from the public eye. But then, the rage leaves her body the same way it came – in a flash. She gazes upon Tony. His left arm was in bandages and the bruises on his face – a pretty good one over the eye, a cut on the lip and eyebrow still seemed pretty fresh. He still hadn't seen her, though; he was very focused on the necklace in his hands; it was the one Fox gave – well, _stole_ – for his birthday, the same one he took with him after leaving prison. Daisy debated whether she should say something or not, but she didn't have to; Simmons had appeared in front of them. The two's focuses switched directly onto her, and in the same time, asked about their loved one.  
„Fox is out of life danger. His vitals are stabile, but he's very malnourished and dehydrated – from begin held captive, that is.“ The young British woman quickly smiled and went back to her seriousness in a matter of seconds. Tony sighed with relief, but Daisy didn't; she had knew Simmons for years and years now, and knew every micro expression and move she'd make when she felt uncomfortable with saying something. „But?“ Daisy concluded.  
„But“ she repeated after the director of Shield, „Hydra has done something to him.  I'm still analyzing, but – „  
„What?“ Tony asked. His chestnut brown eyes were glassy, resembling more perfectly polished glass than a human eye. It were the tears in his eyes and the giant ball of tears in his throat that were choking him, but he didn't cry; not because he was afraid of what someone would say, but because he knew he'd lose it all. It was the same feeling he had when he watched Pepper fall to death and when he saw Rhodes fall out of the sky and crash into the solid ground. The same feeling he had when he was carrying the missile into the abyss that had consumed the blue skies over New York.  
„They experimented on his Inhuman genes.“ the biochemist said, looking at the loved ones of her patient. Hell, he wasn't just a patient to her. He was her friend, her crying shoulder; he was a good man, and she had already lost too many. That's why she thought of him as a patient only right now; it was because she knew that, if she lets her emotions and subjectivity get involved, it would compromise her ability of clear judgment. She would be cold and distant now, but tonight when Fox is safe and out of danger, she will let it all out. „Fitz thinks that his powers are permanently removed from the molecular structure of his DNA.“  
„What?!“ Daisy shot out like a shotgun, and Tony kept looking at the young scientist in front of him. „Is that all the damage they made?“ he asked, „That's all they did to him?“  
Jemma looked at both of them. Tony was concerned about his son, who was just rescued from a Hydra base by Captain America himself. They preformed experiments on him for days. If it was only his powers that they took from him, oh God...  
She nodded. That was all she could do for him now. He rushed past her and into Fox's room.  
Daisy, however, wasn't at the same ease Tony was. Hydra had found a way to exterminate her kind – once and for all. They removed the additional structures that had been active in Fox's – and hers, and every other Inhumans's – DNA, ever since the moment he had undergone teregenesis. A crucial part of him – erased, just like that; like it never even existed. With this in their hands, Hydra and the Watchdogs could achieve their goal: the extinction of all Inhumans. Her heart was racing even faster than it was before.

Tony Stark held Fox's hand. It was cold and pale, just like his face. He looked peaceful, as he lay in the hospital bed in the Shield base. The pale lightning was shining on his face, making the cuts and bruises better visible. His cheeks weren't rosy anymore; they were purple, just like the area underneath the big cut he had over his eyebrow. His long arms were also covered in bruises – varying from a warm pink, to a sickening green, to a dark purple, and his wrists were red and swollen – now they were hidden under bandages, though – from the vibranium handcuffs which kept him still. Jemma, when she came around a few moments earlier, had strictly forbidden Tony from looking at the incisions Hydra's scientists had made. She called them scientists and not doctors for a reason – they were butchers. It will take months for these wounds to heal, if not a year. And even when they do, there will be scars to remind him of it, every day until the end of his life. Finally, she shed a tear. A single, warm tear, slid down her pallid cheek. Everyone visited him. Steve and Bucky, Nat, Clint and Rhodes, Thor and Bruce, Wanda and Sam. Even Scott Lang and his family came around. It was Tony's son who lay in that bed, and coming by to see him was the least they could do for him. Tony, however, hadn't left his side. He promised his son that he'd be there when he wakes up. He left him alone in the base, and Fox was ambushed. He wasn't going to do it again – not today, not ever. He won't disappoint him again. He had promised that to him by whispering it in his ear, after a tear from Tony's eyes fell onto Fox's cheek when he leaned over him to say it. Tony's grief was consuming him, eating him from the inside. If only he hadn't left him there alone... If only he had waited. None of this would've happened.  
„Tony“ he whispered softly.  
Stark's reddish and swollen eyes looked up. It was Fox! He woke up.  
„Water.“ the pale young man demanded. It was all he could say right now. „My throat is dry.“  
Tears sprung from Tony's eyes as he immediately stood up, running across the room for the bottled water. It weren't tears of sadness; it was happiness. Fox woke up. His big, tired eyes looked at his father as he drank the water through a straw, with a lot if effort not to scream from the pain. Tony was looking at him, analyzing every inch of his face. The faint smile, the tired eyes. The healing bruises. For the first time in the four days he was in this bed, his skin had finally taken up some color. He looked alive again. Tony's eyes filled out with tears and his lips pulled into a smile. His heart was racing, pulsing in every millimeter of his body. Fox shut his eyes again, widening his smile a bit more.  
„For how long was I out?“ his voice was cracking. Tony immediately sat next to him, embracing Fox's hand in with his. For the first time, Fox strengthened his grip, reaching for Tony's warm hands.  
„You – you're back now, kid.“ his tongue twisted. He still couldn't believe it. The smile over his face wasn't going anywhere. Fox Cooper was back, smiling and alive, and that was all that mattered.

 


End file.
